Barking at the Moon
by Nova Bucker
Summary: Plunged into a world of death & danger, girl & dog stand against the world. Their ordinary lives in shambles, Penny & Bolt can only move forward & fight any way they can; w/ unburied histories, mysterious powers, Bolt's increasing intelligence & enemies at every turn, theirs is a high learning curve to hack, but w/ time, grit & a little luck, they may stand a fighting chance. TV-AU


**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything, if I did I wouldn't have moths living in my wallet.

**NOTICE:** This fic is part of a shared universe with several planned fics as well as another fic that is still a WIP, the shared universe is listed on the Ao3 site as a series called 'Distorted Horizons,' be aware that a shared universe DOES NOT equal story overlap necessarily and the timeline is NOT chronologically in order of posting, I will release a 'Distorted Horizons-verse' timeline eventually/far from now when I deem it relevant/necessary, so don't nag/bug me for one. Also, I DON'T ship Bolt/Penny, in ANY universe, I never have and I never will, I will not bash (b/c I am a live and let live kinda gal when it comes to ships and peoples reading preferences), so suffice it to say, that's not happening in this fic(or any of my fictional universes)… EVER. So, if that was what you were looking for, please look elsewhere for that, because it's not here. And for everyone's information: The rating is for violence, mature themes because the world is an ugly place, language and the like later on.

**A/N: **Inspired by reading Dinode's "Canine of SHIELD" fanfic I ended up writing this (psssst go read it, and possibly bug him to update). Anyways, this fic will be an eventual crossover with many Marvel!verse stuff, b/c well the Marvel universe is a vast, multi-faceted world with many fandoms encompassed within and I thought, why not? Mind you the crossover bits won't occur until later, much later, whenever I decide they need to happen, but just warning you all if that's not your thing. Anyways, I've been in this writing rut lately, and have been trying to get back into the swing of things, so here we are and I hope you all enjoy. Feedback is welcome and appreciated, please enjoy and leave a review if you so choose. Toodles!

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"_Before you make a decision, ask yourself this question: will you regret the results or rejoice in them?" _

–Rob Liano

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**Prologue**

_Swish-swish._

Hands tap nervously on worn leather, as the hanging lights ahead finally blink dimly, giving the cue to move forward.

_Swish-swish._

A man breathes deeply, a foot shifts, and his fingers itch to take a cigarette from the glovebox.

_Swish-swish._

'_Not yet,'_ he thinks brusquely, snatching his wayward digits away from the glove compartment, _'still a ways to go.'_

_Swish-swish._

Tired eyes squint at the limited visibility, as raindrops patter the metallic roof above like a beating drum.

_Swish-swish._

Minutes drag on like hours, with nothing but the sound of drumming rain and the rhythmic drag of windshield-wipers to accompany his thoughts.

_Swish-swish._

In the hours of silence that follow, treacherous thoughts of turning back cling to the corners of his mind, those of which he entertains for a brief moment, before scowling as common sense settles into the fantasy.

_Swish-swish._

If he hadn't known the consequences going into this, he knew them now, intimately, and going back was _not_ an option.

_Swish-swish._

The point-of-no-return had been reached _days_ ago, and to be honest he was completely exhausted. The reality of the situation would hit him once he lost focus of the immediate situation, he's sure of it, and the man doesn't look forward to that at _all_.

_Swish-swish._

Eventually he brings the vehicle to a stop, breathes deeply, steps out of the car and then he locks it. He's soaked to the bone within the span of a few seconds, but makes his way to the dimly lit building across the street. Shivering fingers fumble with a paltry few coins, their clinking drowned out by the weather, as he deposits them into the slot and dials for an operator.

…

An eternity seems to pass by before an operator finally answers.

"_Hallo, wie kann ich Ihnen helfen(1)?"_ Comes the blessed voice of a phone operator.

"Ich möchte ein R-Gespräch nach Amerika, um Eagan Falls, Kansas zu machen(2)," the man says through icy lips.

"_Telefonnummer bitte(3)?"_ The operator requests.

Pushing the soaked, brown hair out of his face, the man gives a number and waits for the operator to patch him through. He takes these moments to look back at the car, and the world seems inordinately silent despite the weather's unceasing rumble, when finally, the phone on the other end begins to ring.

_Ring. Ring._

The man glares at the payphone as he shoves one of his numbing hands into a soaked pocket of his slacks.

_Ring. Ring._

Nervously, his eyes dart to take another nervous glance at the car, then to both ends of the street, then back to the car again.

_Ring. Ring._

'_Come on, come on…'_ He thinks, not even trying to conceal the chatter of his teeth anymore.

"_Hello?"_ Comes a male voice on the other side of the line.

"Is this line secure?"

"_Of course this line secure, it's my dummy line, for dummies,"_ the gravelly voice grumbles out sarcastically, _"is that you Ivan?_"

"Of course it's me," Ivan mutters back quickly.

"_Look, not that I don't like hearing from an old friend again, Science Guy, but-"_

"I'm not calling about _that_," Ivan interrupts emphatically, "I'm in trouble and couldn't think of anyone else to call."

"_You know I can't help you if you've done something prison worthy, right?"_

"Depending on your definition of prison-worthy, I have no real idea. But I've gone and _rozlyuchenyy pokynuty(4)_ the wrong people and I need to disappear and I," Ivan pauses briefly in thought, "need a favor…"

There is a brief silence on the other end of the line, then the man sighs exasperatedly and speaks, _"you and I are going to have a really long talk about boundaries and communication, but for now, where exactly are you?"_

"_Spasybi(5)_, I'm in Germany, but I'm planning on taking off from Fr-"

"_Next question,"_ the gruff man interrupts forcefully,_ "on a scale of one to ten, how fucked are you if I decide not to give a damn?"_

"One-hundred." Ivan answers succinctly, "of course, you don't have to help, it's just, I was never very social to begin with, and I couldn't think of anyone else to turn to, and I know you don't owe me anything but-"

The man on the other end of the line interrupts him once more, _"what about Aneta, does she even kno-"_

"My mother is dead." Ivan states, his voice much rawer than he wants it to be, but he supposes to himself that given the sleep deprivation and circumstances, it was excusable.

A brief, awkward, silence follows Ivan's statement.

"_Look,"_ Ivan's friend speaks again, changing the subject quickly, _"getting one person new papers will be some bullshit-and-a-half but-"_

"Make that two people." Ivan interrupts firmly.

"_What?"_

"I have a daughter." Ivan answers back shakily through chattering teeth.

There is another uncomfortable silence on the other end of the line, until the rumbly voice speaks up again, breaking the silence.

"_Since when?"_ The other man says, recovering quickly, Ivan can practically hear the raised eyebrow in the other man's voice, _"you know what? Never mind, just get to an airport as close to the west edge of Belgium as you possibly can and call again when you get there."_

"_Spasybi(5)_," Ivan chatters out, "you don't know how much-"

"_Don't make me regret this more than I already know I will, Ivan. Just… Just do what I told you, can you handle that?"_

"_Tak(6)_." Ivan affirms.

"_Alright then, be seeing you apparently,"_ and with that, both men hang up and Ivan hurries back to the car.

After stripping out of his wet clothes and changing into dry ones, the brunette's attention is drawn to the carrier tucked in the backseat and its slumbering passenger, as he moves the carrier forward to rest on his lap and against the steering wheel, and he lets his spindly fingers stroke at baby fine hair in an awkward manner.

'_What an awful week,'_ he thinks quietly as the rain seems to come down even harder, if that was even possible, as he quickly buckles the carrier into the back seat next to a small bag.

Then he pushes past his exhaustion and drives on well into the wee hours of the morning before stopping to rest at the side of a country road, when the usually quiet bundle cries for food and a change, and the man, having not eaten properly since two days ago or slept in over seventy-two hours, came to an epiphany, as he watched his tiny companion suckle at the bottle, and the summation of the past week's events was ultimately clear.

Everything in his life up until this point, everything that he had worked so hard for, gone in one fell swoop, in one moment of self-righteous hubris. His own short-sighted actions made in effort for petty revenge, may even end up costing him and possibly his _only_ friend to date, whom he hasn't had contact with in _years_, their lives if they were caught, and Ivan knew this. Ivan knows that this whole thing was a mess, all because he couldn't control his temper, and the fact that he didn't think through any of his ensuing actions or make a single contingency plan to fall back upon. He acted rashly, and now not only was he on the run to escape the fallout, but it was going to cost other people too, like it already had...

Well, that train of thought got depressing really fast…

Also, the prospect of rebuilding his life, if he made it out of the country alive that is, was a daunting one, but it was nothing that he felt he couldn't handle, it'd be hard, but doable. But raising a child on top of that? Being the one responsible for teaching and shaping the growth of another person before unleashing them into the world?

Ivan finds that idea quite terrifying.

Originally, he'd been giddy with schadenfreude at the time, the prospect of his good for nothing bosses discovering their data banks empty and the labs and experiments trashed or missing had been the height of hilarity, until first attempt on Ivan's life that was a few days later…

…

Though in his own defense, Ivan had thought his investor-employers to be nothing more than a privately owned, yet excessively funded corporation branch, people with a little too much money flagrantly throwing it around with little to no looks into the processes involved in the science, who then proceeding to screw over the little guy. Then again, Ivan still chastises himself harshly for not knowing better, the high-end equipment and sheer security he'd seen occasionally snooping around should have been dead-giveaways. That, and that he was more than a tad drunk at the time of the 'crime…' But Ivan knew that his actions had repercussions, and he would just have to deal with the consequences of kicking a sleeping dragon in the teeth.

He was only thankful that he didn't have any other family left, or friends, the less people involved in this clusterfuck the better, and it meant less of a paper trail for _them_ to find him.

He'd never been much of a social butterfly growing up, or much of a ladies' man, and of all the things he'd planned for in his future, a child of his own had never been at the forefront of those plans. As a young man, he had been too caught up in his studies, and after that, his research took up most of his time and attention, his passion for science leaving little time for things like friends, women and romance practical non-entities in his life. Emotionally connecting with people had never been his strong suit either, he usually found them difficult to deal with, boring, or obstructive, his friend being the exception, to a certain degree, also whom he hadn't contacted in several years.

But now Ivan is stuck with a daughter, for better or for worse, he'd already confirmed her existence with his friend, who could hopefully bail the both of them out of the mess he'd landed the two of them into. Ivan was… In it for the long haul, and for once, he wasn't even sure how exactly he was going to do it. He briefly wonders if either of his parents had been like this when they'd had him, and can even feel the telltale throb of an oncoming headache behind the front of his skull.

'_No, no, no,'_ the man thinks as he digs out a non-descript medication bottle from the glovebox and pops a single pill into his mouth, _'I can't and won't deal with this right now.'_

…

A few minutes pass, and a dribble of wetness crawls its way down his lip,_ 'a nosebleed, how wonderful,' _he thinks as he presses a wad of tissue into the bleeding orifice.

Even after his friend helped, what was he going to do _afterwards_? Was he going to live in his friend's kindness forever? What would he do for work? What if-

Ivan shakes his head gently and sighs, interrupting his train of thought and rubs at his temples, he's overthinking it, he'd done the right thing and he needs to focus on the problem at hand, then deal with everything else as it came. But he could at least figure out this father thing, eventually, all he had to do was meet her physical needs and figure out the rest from there.

The responsibility of another being's welfare and future only rests entirely on his shoulders, no big deal right? Right?

Ivan feels the sudden urge to laugh hysterically, but he quells the sound, before willing his nerves back into submission with the thought of _'it's the lack of sleep,' _repeating over and over again in his head like a mantra, and being the sole reason he doesn't turn around and face death or worse with open arms.

Maybe it wouldn't be too bad; he could teach her about the wonders of the world around her, and science. Yes, Ivan supposed he could do that too, he couldn't mess that up, he wouldn't…

'_I'll make it work little one,'_ he thinks with a sigh as he shifts the car into gear and pulls out into the road, Ivan had around maybe a year-ish before the child would start being able to remember things, he had time, if they both made it out alive that is, _'I'll figure it out, promise.'_

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**Translation/s **(everything is googled or from google translate; in order of appearances, also is the placement of the parenthesized numbers correct/clear? I just don't want anyone to be confused is all)**:**

(1) Hallo, wie kann ich Ihnen helfen? = (German) Hello, how may I be of assistance?

(2) Ich möchte ein R-Gespräch nach Amerika, um Eagan Falls, Kansas zu machen = (German) I would like to make a collect call to America, to Eagan Falls, Kansas.

(3) Telefonnummer bitte? = (German) Phone number please?

(4) rozlyuchenyy pokynuty = (Ukrainian, literal translation) pissed off

(5) Spasybi = (Ukrainian) Thank you

(6) Tak = (Ukrainian) Yes

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_Fun Fact_: The 'Bolt' video game booklet says that the game takes place during 'episode' 332, if you go by traditional 26-episode seasons, you get 12.77, 77 percent of 26 being rounded down to 20, therefore putting the events of the video game at Season 13 Episode 20, damn that must have been one popular show(in-universe of course)…

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**A/N:** As you can see Ivan is not in the most wonderful of places right now, it's what sleep deprivation _does_, why do you think it's considered a method of torture? Anyone who wonders where Bolt or Penny are, are going to have to be patient, because editing this chapter was monstrous (fuck present-tense, I never knew it would be SOOOOO hard). I have literally sat on this chapter for months, because of editing, I am never doing strict present-tense third-person AGAIN!

The 'Science Guy' nickname is a shout out to the Bill Nye show (which I grew up watching, so no hating). Also, no I specifically did not iterate WHERE exactly Ivan got the baby, it's implied, and totally on purpose.

Note that I only know English, and any use of other languages will be phrases I get off of google and translations done by Google Translate. This story will be using the TV-Bolt Universe(except no unrealistic animals-have-their-own-language-that-sounds-like-animal-noises-to-humans here, Marvel is WAY too reality-based to allow for that and I LIKE realism you know?) and will take elements of the 'Bolt' video game and the little we got from the Bolt TV show from the movie(which wasn't a lot, yay creative license). Okay, editing this chapter was a bitch-and-a-half, writing in third-person present tense was harder than I thought it would, I ended up editing over twenty times because I sometimes switched tenses without intending to, anything left of the past-tense writing is entirely intentional. Next chapter will be going back to generally past-tense (with occasional switches, loose rules, whatever), stylistic choices you know, anyways, until next time. So, tell me what you guys think, was it good, bad, mediocre, you don't give a f*ck(if it's this one they why are you reading it?)? Constructive criticisms welcome, short tiny reviews/comments are welcome too, whatever floats boats, and until next time, ciao! ;)


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